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POT EDUCATION RESOURCE PACK

Image by Suzi Corker Photography

POT Education Resource Pack 1 Contents

1. Pot and the National Curriculum

2. About the show

3. Classroom Activity 1: Reflecting on the Production

4. The Creative Team

5. The Cast

6. Previous Reviews

7. What is a Gang? Girls in Gangs Context

8. Writing Activity 1: Write a letter to a care leaver

Key Contacts

Writer & Producer: Ambreen Razia [email protected]

Producer & Project Manager: Maeve O’Neill [email protected]

POT Education Resource Pack 2 POT & THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM

English, Citizenship, PSHE, Key Stage 3 & 4

English:

 Engaging with the ideas and themes in the text. Analysing and evaluating spoken elements and moments in the play

Citizenship and PSHE

 Exploring the role of female gang members

 Exploring the care system and reintegration for care leavers

 Responding to the key issues addressed in the piece

This Education Resource Pack has been designed to inform teachers, students and workshop participants about the play and includes practical classroom games and exercises to compliment student visits to see the theatre production on tour. We have assembled a range of activities to help you reflect and work creatively, through presentation, discussing, role play and performance, improvisation and writing. After Pot’s successful R&D run at last year we realised that the play highlights a number of themes and issues which could be explored with young people in a workshop environment.

Ambreen Razia is a British Pakistani actress, writer and facilitator. Her mission is to not only create narratives which stem from Black Asian and Mixed Ethnicity (BAME) backgrounds but also open up the arts to those who find it inaccessible. We are touring this production to a wide range of venues and regions, each with a different audience and we hope to engage young people with the play and its themes. We’re very pleased to be sharing this story with you.

POT Education Resource Pack 3 About the show

“This block is the devil’s playground, He follows the beaten and the weak.”

Louisa wakes up on lock down surrounded by debris from last night’s blow out. Josh has vanished but she is not alone and she’s beginning to feel the heat.

From the writer of ‘The Diary of a Hounslow Girl’, Ambreen Razia's restless new thriller, POT, reveals the hidden lives of Britain’s invisible children, adrift in the care system at the mercy of gang culture.

POT delves into the lives of Britain’s invisible children, adrift in the care system and inadvertently impacted by gang culture. 16-year-old Louisa wakes up in a flat on her estate with her erratic and unstable boyfriend Josh missing and a notorious drug dealer on her back. A young man, Miles, who is clearly concealing his own troubled past has been appointed her protector. Time is running out as Louisa must decide whether to do the right thing whilst a series of revelations suggest everything is not as it seems.

“POT is a raw tale set in inner-city and it pulls no punches. It raises questions about why young people who leave care, form families on the streets. I want to capture these stories which go untold, the voices which echo from the underbelly of our cities; nobody should be exempt from seeing themselves reflected back at them. I believe that through theatre we can help tell stories which centre around young people who are unheard, mis-represented or exploited, enabling us to break down misconceptions and dismantle damaging stereotypes.”

Ambreen Razia, September 2018

POT Education Resource Pack 4 CLASSROOM ACTIVITY 1:

Reflecting on the production

Use this exercise to help your students respond to work that they have seen onstage. This tool enables students to respond to any performance piece, theatre or live performance that they have seen.

1. Organise the class into groups of 4 or 5 and give each group a large sheet of paper and some pens.

2. Write the name of the production on the whiteboard, then assign each group an area of the Production to explore including:

• Set Design and staging

• Direction

• Costume

• Music and Sound

• Acting & Performance

• Themes

3. Activity

Each group writes their chosen area of the production as a heading on their flip chart paper. Each group then has five minutes to brainstorm thoughts and comments around their assigned area of the production, noting them in a spider diagram on their flip chart paper. After five minutes each group must pass their paper onto the next group and repeat this process until the every group has commented on all areas of the production listed by the class. These sheets can then be photocopied and handed out or you can display them in the classroom for inspiration, when discussing the production.

POT Education Resource Pack 5 4. Discussion

Have an open discussion about the different sub headings under production, what they mean, and the importance.

Within part 3 of the activity, once each group has written down comments, ideas brainstormed on the particular heading, maybe then get the groups to share back to class and then ask if anyone else observed and felt something different that could be added to the flip chart paper. Do for all groups.

THE CREATIVE TEAM

Ambreen Razia (Writer)

Ambreen Razia is an Actress & Writer from South London. Her critically acclaimed debut play Diary of a Hounslow Girl, commissioned by Ovalhouse, toured nationally with Black Theatre Live and House Theatre, featured at Alchemy Festival, Southbank and has been commissioned as a TV pilot for BBC Three. Awards include Best Newcomer, Asian Media Awards 2016 and Eastern Eye Emerging artist award, 2017. Ambreen was nominated for the Outstanding Achievement Award at the 'Women of the World' festival earlier this year. Credits include: On the Middle Day (Old Vic Theatre); Words and Women (Edinburgh Fringe); Diary of a Hounslow Girl (Black Theatre Live National UK Tour) ; Mind the Gap (National Theatre); No Guts, No Heart, No Glory (Perth International Arts Festival Australia / BBC 4) Random Acts (Channel 4); Murdered by my Father (BBC Three); Finding Fatimah (British Muslim TV); Ladies Day (Sky), Ilford Lane (BFI), Killed by my Debt (BBC); The Harry Hill Sitcom (BBC), Girl Untitled (Film 4). www.ambreenrazia.com

Sophie Moniram (Director)

Sophie Moniram is a graduate of Mountview Academy's Theatre Directing MA and the National Theatre Studio’s Directing Course. Directing credits include The Diary of a Hounslow Girl by Ambreen Razia (initially commissioned by Ovalhouse, with National Tours produced by Ambreen Razia, Black Theatre Live & House Theatre),

POT Education Resource Pack 6 POT (Ovalhouse, supported by ), dirty butterfly (Guildhall), Wild East (Drama Centre), self-written Midsummer Roman Feast (RSC: Avonbank Gardens), F**king Outside the Box (VAULT Festival), The Five Stages of Waiting (Tristan Bates Theatre), Indian Summer (), Creditors (The Cockpit Theatre), The Star-Spangled Girl (Karamel Club), Purgatorio (Karamel Club) and Noah (short play) by Amir Nizar Zuabi ( Theatre). As Associate Director: The Greatest Wealth curated by Lolita Chakrabarti and directed by Adrian Lester (Old Vic). As Assistant Director: The Winter’s Tale (National Theatre: Schools Tour & The Dorfman), B (), Myth (RSC: TOP), The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco (The ), Creditors (Young Vic Theatre) and Yerma by Simon Stone after Lorca (Young Vic Theatre* & NT Live). (*Initially part of the Young Vic’s Jerwood Assistant Director Programme 2016, supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation) - www.sophiemoniram.com/

Alison Neighbour (Set & Costume Design)

Alison is a scenographer working in theatre, dance, installation, and site specific environments. Her practice is a process of experiment and play with materials, texture, and found objects. She transforms spaces and tells stories visually, aiming to use design to connect people and place, and give the audience agency. Alison trained as a designer at RADA and is represented by The Designer’s Formation.

Recent work includes: The Girl With Incredibly Long Hair (Wales Millennium Centre); Good Girl (Trafalgar Studios); Tumulus (Vaults Festival Origin Award); The Little Prince (Playground Theatre); Hanging in the Balance (mac, Birmingham); Constellations & A Peter Rabbit Tale (Singapore Repertory Theatre); Ross & Rachel (UK tour); Spine (UK Tour); The Curtain (Young Vic); De-Railed (HOME, Manchester); Phenomenal People (Fuel, UK Tour); Crazy Gary’s Mobile Disco (Chapter Arts Centre & Wales tour); I Told You This Would Happen (ARC, Stockton & UK tour); Lost in the Neuron Forest (Wales Millennium Centre & UK tour); The Eyes Have It (Imagine Watford Festival); Followers ( Playhouse); Used Blood Junkyard (Arcola); Square Bubble (InTransit & National Theatre) Alison’s work was exhibited at World Stage Design 2013 and Make/Believe 2015, and she currently holds an Arts Council Developing Creative Practice grant.

POT Education Resource Pack 7 She is also co-founder of Bread & Goose, a theatre company who make site based work with communities. Alison has taught theatre design at Rose Bruford College, Lewisham College, RADA, University of Creative Arts, University of Hull, and Canterbury Christchurch University, and led artistic residencies at numerous institutions across the UK. alisonneighbourdesign.com breadandgoose.co.uk

Jonny Wharton – (Sound Design)

Jonny grew up on a farm near Bristol and Bath, immersing himself in music during his teen years as he learned several instruments and began experimenting with music production and composition. He moved to London to study at Brunel University, graduating in 2006 with a BA in Creative Music Technology. He began playing and producing with live electronic band Concrete Disco in 2010 and has been writing under the names Jonny Falls Over and Jung Sun since the mid- noughties.

With a wide range of expertise in production, composition and performance (including guitars, piano/keys, drums/percussion, bass and vocals) Jonny works in various fields and genres within music and pays his skills and passion forward in teaching a new generation of musicians.

His first theatre commission was with the youth group at Ovalhouse, and he has since gone on to score and sound design for numerous theatre and film projects, including Diary of a Hounslow Girl (by Ambreen Razia 2015), Friends For All (by Simon Mole and Peader Kirk 2016); and Confessions of an Exorcist (forthcoming feature film thriller). Jonny is based in Clapton in East London where he works from his own studio. Website: www.jonny.earth

Jamie Platt – Lighting Design

Jamie trained at RWCMD and has been nominated for two Awards. Lighting designs include: Jellyfish (); Yous Two (); Le Grand Mort (Trafalgar Studios); Alkaline (); To Dream Again (Theatr Clwyd & Polka Theatre); The Moor, Where Do Little Birds Go? (Old Red Lion Theatre); Checkpoint Chana, Quaint Honour, P’yongyang, We Know Where You

POT Education Resource Pack 8 Live, Chicken Dust (); Beast, Klippies (); Vincent River (Hope Mill Theatre); Pattern Recognition (Platform Theatre & World Tour); Reared, Screwed, Grey Man (Theatre 503); The Trap (Omnibus Theatre); Scenes from the End of the World, The Act (Yard Theatre); YOU, Mr. Incredible (The Vaults); House of America (Jack Studio Theatre); Mahmud íle Yezida, BOY, Misbehaving, The Intruder, Bald Prima Donna, The Red Helicopter (). Associate lighting designs include: Ink (West End) for Neil Austin; Depart (UK Tour), The Grit in the Oyster (Sadler’s Wells & World Tour), The Measures Taken ( & World Tour, all for Lee Curran. Represented by Sam Day at InterTalent www.jamieplatt.com

Production Management by Andy Shewan

Andy read Drama and English at Hull University and followed this with a Diploma in Stage Management and Technical Theatre at Mountview Theatre School. Many years’ experience as a Stage Manager or Production Manager include: Brewhouse Theatre Taunton (Resident Stage Manager), 3 years of touring the South West with Devon-based Orchard Theatre Company (Deputy Stage Manager and Company Stage Manager), tours with Adventures in Motion Pictures (Technical Stage manager), The Sphinx (Technical Stage Manager), Trestle Theatre Co (Technical Stage Manager), Travelling Light Theatre Co (Stage Manager), Chris Goode and Company (Stage Manager,) Theatre Tours International (Stage Manager and Production Manager), Actors Touring Company (Technical Stage Manager), Farnham Maltings (Stage Manager), Helen Chadwick’s Song Theatre (Stage Manager) and Goldfield Productions (Stage Manager) From 1997 to 2009, Andy worked for for Children in various Stage and Production Management roles under the leadership of Tony Graham, creating work at the , , The , Pleasance Theatre Islington, Regents Park Open Air Theatre and the Linbury Studio at Covent Garden Opera House. Shows produced during this period travelled to many venues on tour throughout the UK, and as far afield as New York and Singapore. While employed at Unicorn Theatre, Andy was closely involved in the creation of the company’s new home, the award-winning Unicorn Theatre on

POT Education Resource Pack 9 Tooley Street, London, and oversaw a number of productions in the new building as Production Manager. In the field of Education, Andy has worked with students at University of Bedfordshire in Luton, and as a Stage Manager / Project Supervisor / Mentor with Stage Management and Production Management students on the BA Theatre Practice course at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, most recently on the Bridge Project, working with students and other staff members to create a fully equipped studio theatre in a church hall in Belsize Park to present a short season of work by Shakespeare. Other locations where Andy has helped to create theatre include Twelfth Century crypts, medieval guildhalls, cathedrals, tents, parks, skittle alleys and holes in the ground. Andy recently worked with Maeve O’Neill and Simon Mole as Stage Manager on a multi-media touring show for families, “Friends For All”.

Neil Grutchfield - (Dramaturg)

Neil is a freelance dramaturg and script reader with 17 years’ experience. He also works as New Writing Manager for Synergy Theatre Project and is reading for the Playwriting Award. www.neilgrutchfield.com

Suzi Corker - (Photographer)

Suzi Corker is a London-based photographer, she likes pointing her camera at things and making pictures. She specialises in production and portrait photography and loves capturing artists and their work. In her personal projects, Suzi likes to explore ideas around gender and body image and particularly likes collaborating with other female artists. You can often find her at the side of a stage pretending to be invisible. www.suzicorker.com

Maeve O’Neill - (Producer, Rua Arts)

Rua, meaning red the colour of blood, energy and life. Rua Arts offers Project Management, Arts Administration & Mentoring for Artists and Arts Organisations led by by Arts Producer, Maeve O'Neill. Maeve is an arts producer, specialising in artist- led producing and mentoring. As an independant producer Maeve has produced productions, national tours and projects for artists, theatre companies and arts

POT Education Resource Pack 10 organisations in UK for over 8 years. She produced the premier of Blind Summit’s award winning show, The Table at Edinburgh 2011 and produced 2 national tours of The Diary of a Hounslow Girl by Ambreen Razia with Black Theatre Live and House Theatre. She works on a freelance basis with artists, theatre companies and venues including Apples and Snakes, Ovalhouse and NIE Theatre. She trained at The Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin and completed a BA in Modern Drama Studies at Brunel University. www.ruaarts.earth

THE CAST

Gamba Cole – Miles

Gamba trained at The Identity school of Acting and since graduating starred in feature film Gone too Far (Poisson Rouge). He has recently filmed new series HANNA (Amazon) and feature film HIS HOUSE directed by Remi Weekes. Other recent screen credits include Sky Atlantic/Showtime series Guerrilla directed by John Ridley, LUCKY MAN for Sky and BBC drama Our Loved Boy for BBC. Theatre includes Kingston 14 (Theatre Royal Stratford East) Directed by Clint Dyer, and lead in Antigone (Pilot Theatre Tour) Directed by .

Sophia Leonie - Louisa

Sophia Leonie played the role of Aimee in the stage production ‘Hashtag Lightie’ at the Arcola Theatre in 2016 and 2017 and was nominated for best actress at the 2017 UEA awards (UK Entertainment Awards). Sophia has acted in a range of television shows including Doctors, Casualty and TopBoy. Sophia Leonie attended East 15 Acting School.

Wahab Sheikh – Josh

Wahab trained at East 15 Acting School. He is best known for playing Riz in Danny Boyle’s TRANCE with James McAvoy and Vincent Cassell. Other Film credits include the comedy FINDING FATIMAH (dir. Oz Arshad); Red 2 (dir. Dean Parisot);

POT Education Resource Pack 11 ZERO DARK THIRTY (dir. Kathryn Bigelow); COMPLICIT (with David Oyelowo dir. Niall MacCormick for Channel 4) TV credits include: NEXT OF KIN (ITV dir. Justin Chadwick); DOUGHNUTS (Channel 4, dir. Simon Neal) and RUE BOY (Channel 4 Random Acts, dir. Simon Neal). Theatre credits include: the original cast of POT (Ovalhouse Theatre, dir. Sophie Moniram); THUGZ N TEARZ (Cockpit Theatre which Wahab wrote and directed) and The OBSERVATORY (Pleasance Theatre, dir. Daniel Foxsmith). Wahab played Hardish in afternoon drama STORMCHASERS on Radio 4. Short films include: THE BROTHERS GIBRIL (dir. Spencer Young)

Reviews for The Diary of a Hounslow Girl by Ambreen Razia

British Theatre ★★★★★

“Ambreen Razia’s performance is astonishing and engaging. For any actor to hold an audience interested for over an hour is an achievement in itself. The fact that she manages to inject the performance with humour, and the fervour of youth, says a lot about her understanding of her subject, of the quality of the writing and of the talent of Razia herself. Shaheeda is no stereotype. She’s complex, and ultimately young!”

Plays to See: ★★★★★

"Much of this play is very funny, not least because the problems on show are not confined to Muslims, or indeed to any one group. Stress between generations is on of the many elements in human existence with which we all have to learn to deal. Young as she is, Shaheeda is maturing as we watch her. This really is an evening in the theatre that people should not miss."

The Stage: ★★★★

"Ambreen Razia proves to be as talented a writer as she is a performer. The play follows 16-year-old Shaheeda as she struggles to align her Pakistani heritage with

POT Education Resource Pack 12 the realities of life as a London teenager. This is a sophisticated, moving and often very funny piece of writing, particularly nuanced in its depiction of Shaheeda's relationship with her mother."

London Theatre 1: ★★★★

"Razia’s performance, flitting between different characters (she even plays Shaheeda’s boyfriend Aaron) is certainly energetic and passionate, and the audience is, for the most part, addressed directly. That’s why it’s so absorbing. This simultaneously amusing and poignant show reminds us that behind every seemingly surly and irascible teenager is a person just as human as we are."

Soobax: ★★★★

‘Brilliant moments are born out of the contrast of our character’s two coexisting worlds of school, boys, weed, Mosque and dreams of traveling the world. Alongside that of her sister’s traditional Pakistani wedding and her ever disapproving Mother. The high energy humorous portrayal of a girl’s London High School.

Remote Goat: ★★★★★

I was struck how the modern teenage situations and dilemmas assailing Shahida and her mates reflect and echo my own experience and those of my school friends, however many decades have passed. The details may differ, but the stories don’t. It may not be comfortable to remember, but it’s better that we do or we risk alienating the young and leaving them to struggle alone. When we do that, we fail them. We also fail them when we stop having adventures.

The Upcoming: ★★★★

"Comedian Pete Johansson wisely stated that one can’t be scared of something whilst laughing at it – a phrase that poignantly summarises comedy’s role in Diary of a Hounslow Girl. With this production Razia manages to confront bold issues of societal expectations, loss and teen-angst without pigeonholing her play within the confines of a tragedy/family drama.."

POT Education Resource Pack 13 Everything Theatre: ★★★★

"I was laughing throughout unstoppably, but this did not distract from the important message Ambreen set out to deliver. A wonderful venue for a wonderful play, and definitely deserving of the incredible reception it received. The Diary of a Hounslow girl is an absolute must see!"

What is a gang?

 Street-based young people who see themselves as a group

 Engages in criminal activity and violence

 Lays claim over territory

 Has an identifying feature

 Usually in conflict with other gangs

According to the Metropolitan Police data there are around 250 ‘gangs' in London, 62 of which are considered to be ‘high harm' and responsible for around two thirds of all gang-related crime in the capital.

Girls do, however, play a number of ancillary roles in gangs:

 As foot soldiers, setting up rival gangs

 As carriers, holding and hiding weapons and drugs

 As mother figures

 Most commonly as girlfriends or to perform sexual acts. They are often passed around gang members and rape is not uncommon

These roles have a devastating impact on girls and young women in gang-impacted communities, further reducing already very low self-esteem and worth. In addition,

POT Education Resource Pack 14 police data shows a significant increase in female street violence over the past few years, though this is not always gang-related.

Researchers producing the Girls and Gangs report heard that:

Female gang members in their teens are being pressured to have sex with boys as young as 10 to initiate males into gangs, One case in which a schoolgirl was abducted and sexually assaulted by nine males because she criticized a gang member. Young women associated with rival gangs are targets, in some cases forced to take part in a “line up”, where they are made to perform sexual acts on several men in a row.

Girls and young women are frequently used to hide weapons and drugs – sometimes in pushchairs – because they are less likely to be stopped and searched by police. A brutal gang culture is increasingly seeing girls and young women passed around different male gang members for sex, with rape used as a weapon in conflicts between rival gangs, and initiation ceremonies in which both girls and boys suffer sexual abuse.

Statements from Ex Gang Members

"At that time I had no mother, no one to depend on. At that time my mother was a drug addict, I was on my own," said Charlene (not her real name).

"The people that came into my life, they would come into my life and just leave again. With the school that I was in, they didn't really help." Charlene added.

"If I went to school and something was bothering me, they didn't even help me with that.

"They would be quick to move me out of the school because of the reputation of the school; they didn't want to ruin it. So they wouldn't help, they would just send you to an alternative school."

"I had two different types of initiation (into the gang)," said Mona. "There's one where I had to fight the girls that were gang members, to prove my worth to them. And then there was being passed around by the boys, and that also happened to me.

POT Education Resource Pack 15 "I wanted to be accepted, they fed on that acceptance. I had issues at home with my schooling, with my behaviour, I'd run away from home, I was out by myself, hooking up with a load of older people, and they could and would abuse me."

A girl in a gang risks injury or death resulting from fights with other gangs, retaliation for crimes they’ve committed and simply being targeted because of their association with a particular gang. They also put themselves at risk of getting kicked out of school or going to jail for the crimes they commit and even for simply being a part of a gang who’s done something wrong. Classroom Activity 2.1:

Reading and Writing Exercise

As well as Gangs, the play also explores the issues around children who come from the care system. It is revealed in the play that both Louisa and Miles both came from Care.

Writing Activity 1

Put yourself in the shoes of a carer. What advice would you give to someone who is leaving care?

1. Ideas for writing

How do you convince a care leaver that the world is a good place?

Imagine there is a young person who is a week a way from leaving care. In letter form what would you write to them to help them reintegrate back into society? (You could mention Job opportunities, services, as well as encouraging words)

Write from the point of view of the carer, about leaving care and integrating into society. Think of positive events that could happen, including words of advice. (If they're feeling scared, how would you encourage to feel brave and confident?)

POT Education Resource Pack 16 Writing Activity 2

If you were a guardian angel for Louisa, what advice would you give to her be- fore she joined a gang? (you know already know the outcome of her joining a gang, but if you could prevent her what would you say)

1. Discussion

What does a carer do?

2. Ideas for Writing

 Maybe it could be Louisa writing to her younger self etc. It could be a letter, poem  How do you think someone leaving care might feel? (also write down how they might feel)  Think about the reasons why someone may be put into care. Think about Miles and Louisa, how do you think they felt?  Write down 3 words/feelings of how a female gang member might feel after previous discussions about female involvement  Write down how the character Louisa felt throughout the play

Classroom Activity 2.2: What is a gang

1. Discussion: What is a Gang?

Ask the students what they think a gang is/ means , (give them the definition)

Research a variety of statistics about gangs in London (some true, some false, or all true) and get the students in pairs, small groups to talk about which statistic is real and fake. Have a discussion and then reveal which statements are real (include the data from metropolitan police‘ 250 gangs in London)

What are some of the things that might happen in a gang?

What do they think the role of a female is within a gang? Provide facts/statements of the involvement of ex-gang members etc.

POT Education Resource Pack 17